Such A Cliche

Well I just finished a season of a television show, and in the last few episodes I witnessed one of my favorite, most cliche things to happen.

I'm going to avoid mentioning the show, or the season number, or just about anything about the show, because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who would eventually watch the show. With that being said, the ending was actually pretty foreseeable, mostly.


So you may ask, "What's this super cliche thing that you love so much?"


If you pay attention to the most common thing I say in my blogs and vlogs and pretty much constantly throughout my life then you know I value one thing above pretty much all else.

Friends.

I'm the type of guy who holds one meaningful conversation with someone and immediately cares about them. I say it so much, because I don't want people to forget that. At the same time, I don't say it out loud enough because it is one of those things that's hard to actually say. It's tough to tell someone, "Hey, even though we don't talk much you mean the world to me, and I would do anything for you." For some reason, it's one of those things that people and society says comes across as a little strong.

And why is that?

Why can't people express their unwavering love for someone without it being weird? I have no clue, so I try to do it as subtly as I can. Every single time I respond with, "Always." I don't just say it as a reference to Harry Potter. I say it to legitimately mean that God willing I will always be there.

How can you promise always William? What if you're in an entirely different city? State? Country?

True. I am in no way capable of being everywhere, and the more people I meet the more I realize that I can't always physically be there for people when they need it. Phone calls. Texts. Videos. I love those things, because I can be there for someone without actively being next to them.

And that's where we get to the cliche.

I haven't encountered a huge catastrophe in my life that would require me to drop absolutely everything to stand by someone I cared about. I would in a heartbeat though.

See, the cliche that I can never get enough of is when the antagonist pulls out the master plan that places the protagonist in a corner. There's no way out. Our protagonist finds themselves alone, with only one choice of how to end everything. And more often than not, they decide they'll surrender to the villain in the hopes that it stops them. All hope seems lost.

That's when it happens. You see one person, a person who has interacted with the protagonist only to disappear for a while, stand up and fight back. And then another rises up. And the odds are against them, but they stand up regardless. A third person makes a sacrifice to return and help. A fourth turns to the protagonist with one sentence, "You're not alone. There's always hope."

Immediately things change. People who were considered villains stand beside the protagonist because, hey, sometimes there are people that don't have to be good to do the right thing, and they know that the protagonist is right. The current villain's forces are depleted.

"Kill me! Prove that you're no better than me!"

Our protagonist has a finger on the trigger, wanting to pull it.

"Don't do it. You're not a killer. You're better than that."

They don't.

I'm bawling long before this point in the show, but for all the right reasons.

People rallying together is beautiful, and I can never get enough of it.

Now, my life will most likely never mimic this moment.

I would love to have this happen, but I would like to avoid the whole catastrophe and all the deaths that come with it.



So, there's my absolute favorite thing a show can do, regardless of how cliche it is. Something about the representation of how powerful friendships can be. I'm fairly certain I made a post titled, "The Power of Friendship," in fact it's a very me title.

If you take nothing else from this, understand that I love you. Immensely. I may not be a Tony Stark Billionaire who can afford to build suits to save people, or even a Bill Gates Billionaire who donates tons of money to charities that save people.

However, I am a human being who understands the importance of love. I don't take friendships lightly, and I will never take you for granted.

So yes, it is completely reasonable when I take a while to comprehend what I'm going to do with my life when people tell me they're leaving. And yes, it is completely reasonable for me to ache when I don't interact with the people I love as often as I'd like. And definitely yes, it is beyond reasonable when I cry for a friend, regardless of the situation.

Because I am not alone. My life is not separate from my friendships. No. My life is because of my friendships. I could never be where I am without the people who helped guide me here. I would be an absolute mess who backed down when I felt cornered by life. I would have sacrificed myself to try and save everyone. Yet there was always someone there. There is always someone there if I look hard enough.

Thank you.

We Walk, We Reverse, We Walk Again

I want to spend a whole, William sized blog post recounting to you the many adventures I had from the moment I set foot on foreign soil to the moment I stepped on the plane back.

I want to chat about the conversations I had and the people I met while I was there.

I want to paint pictures of what I felt when I arrived.
Tell tales of Parisian journeys.
Create a nice narrative of my 12 full days in a foreign country.


However, I don't think I'll do that.

Instead, I'm going to talk about life.



So this was in fact the first time I had left the United States and traveled to a different country. Nervous doesn't even begin to describe how I felt leading up to the trip... Excited can't quite contain the emotions I felt.

I was all over the place, and rightfully so I think.

You'd have to ask Patriz and Emir for an outside read on my emotions while I was in France, because I don't know if I could pinpoint them myself.

I had an absolutely fantastic time! I learned about a different culture, I saw things that America only wishes it had, and I was able to do my favorite thing, meet new people.

"What was your favorite thing yous saw/did?"

Understandably the number one question I've been asked by people upon my return to the states.

I love and hate the question. How is someone supposed to pinpoint a specific sight as the best thing?
At the same time, this question points out a very wonderful thing about us as humans. We think about destinations. We thrive on destinations.

I try not to. I try not to set my goals at a specific point, and I try not to focus on specific destinations.

When we focus on a specific destination we tend to miss the steps we take to get there.

It was interesting because I noticed this when Emir would apologize for us taking too long and not getting to go in to certain locations.

I was never upset about missing something or even sad. At times, I did wish we had gotten to go in some places, but it never tore me down. In fact, almost every single time we arrived too late to go in somewhere it was because we had a longer than expected meal, or I had been taking pictures, or we spent longer at the previous location.

As much as I loved seeing the sights I saw, I would have gladly given every single one of them up for the chance to spend more time with Gil, Skander, Antonio, Sonia, or even Emir and Patriz (whom I hung out with for the whole trip).

I feel like those conversations were more beneficial to me as a human than seeing the sights were, and it is completely ridiculous that I would spend all the money to travel to Paris for 12 days and wish that they had all been spent hanging out instead of sight seeing, but I would do it in a heartbeat.

Like I said earlier, I think we focus on the destination too much. I'm very much a stern believer in the idea that it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. This is one of the defining mottos of my life, and I think it's a better life for it.

Don't get me wrong, I love the destinations as much as the next guy, but think about it. If I were to have achieved my dream job in Seattle instead of ending up with HP in Houston I don't know what  journeys I would have missed. Especially due to the fact that my main reason for choosing to go to France was the fact that HP forced the use of vacation days during Christmas break.

See, it is way too easy to be so set on a goal or a destination that life passes us by.

So, even though it's a silly little joke Gil and I developed from our (maybe) 13 hours of hanging out, "We Walk, We Reverse, We Walk Again" has become a new motto in my life.

Life is a constant journey and as such we are constantly walking through it. There are times when we hit a wall and life throws all manner of impassable obstacles in our paths, and in those moments we reverse, we're thrown for a loop. After such moments, we walk again. We continue on, not stopping.

Through this life, this never-ending journey, I never want to become complacent due to reaching my destination.

No. I will continue to embrace every step of the journey. Every new day, every new encounter, every new breath will be noticed.

So there's my challenge to all of you. Embrace life, and enjoy the journey. Even when the going gets rough there is still a lot of beauty in the world and although it may be hard to see it it is all around us.

I love you all, and hope you weren't expecting me to go all "On the 25th, at approximately 8AM..." in this post. I figured that would just bore you more than you wanted. Haha.

Also, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope it has started out well for you, and I hope that 2015 turns out to be one you look back on fondly. =D